on stage

co-productions

residencies

PRODUCTIONS

RIGHT NOW

Outline

The act of claiming has a dual connotation. Though it harks back to a history of colonisation and theft, we could also consider the strike as a form of claim, when people take back the rights they’ve been deprived of. Reclaiming provides a counterpart to closure and private ownership, especially when carried out collectively and for all. The claim has hypothetical, utopian and speculative qualities; it does not seek permission. Art can be a useful tool for reclaiming as it allows for speculation to happen on a broad and experimental level. However, due to its symbolic nature, a genuine political and social commitment becomes debatable. Can we overcome this loop of fiction when reclaiming through art? And once hypothetically claimed, how can we use and inhabit these constructions?

Using a playful take on the format of the symposium, Right Now looks at the emancipatory possibilities of the act of claiming, through perspectives of feminist speculative fiction and utopian literature.